Sony loses $1 billion: No PlayStation 3 price cut at E3?

As prospective but penny wise gaming consumers look to the horizon and June's eagerly anticipated E3 Expo looms large, many with designs on a PlayStation 3 purchase may well be hoping Sony will mark the event by lopping a sizable chunk off its powerhouse console's lofty retail price. Don't hold your breath..

[Gamertags]

Sony is certainly feeling the heat with the economy and competition.

[irish-leprecaun]

then drop by 100 and watch sony dominate xmas!!

[DasBunker]

they didnt lose money just in the gaming division, misleading title.. as long as they keep pumping out awesome first party games im happy..cuz im a gamer

[GWAVE]

I want Sony to do a price drop.

No, not because I need to buy a PS3 (already own one), but because I think it will be funny to see what the fanboys come up with next when their tired argument of "teh sales! teh sales!" finally withers and dies.

[beardpapa]

^^ Price drop on current design and $399 on PS3 slim (if real) maybe ?

All these pictures of the "PS3 slim" legit or not coupled with Dell throwing out ~$300 PS3 deals for these past two months - kinda like its hinting something.

[RememberThe357]

Earnings report(PDF): http://www.sony.net/SonyInf...
Site(Link to PDF): http://www.sony.net/SonyInf...

[Naucious]

honestly it doesnt sound good but in all aspects sony is a big company and the title is misleading cuz their actually up this year but gaming industry went down, but all in all i guess im the only one that feels that they dont need a price drop, Sony is great as it is in my opinion i guess its for the people that are worried about sales....

lol i saw this article earlier and i just knew it was going to be posted with a misleading concept of an article lol journalist go figure lol

[RememberThe357]

Just looking at the gaming aspect of their business, they need to increase sales. If they aren't continuously expanding their install base, they will start to loss support.

From a gamers perspective, loosing support means loosing multi-platform games and possible exclusives. I know I might sound a bit boom-and-gloomy, but the risk should be taken seriously. Look at all the people who are still pissed about the Dreamcast.

[lokiroo420]

RROD losses = 1 billion, did it stop them?

[cranium]

Original xbox losses= $4 billion

It's MS, they don't care if they lose money or not, they just want market share.

[no-spin]

MS business practice is what one calls unorthodox.

Red ink makes no difference for them, they will make up for it somewhere else (like the Gold membership)

Sony will Not allow a price cut under these conditions, no way and less with all the games, online services for free, now is the time to truly have a good $400 tag.

[RememberThe357]

PS3 game sales went up substantially in 2008 so they might be able to make up the difference in software sales, if that trend continues. And with the added focus on the PSP they might be able to increase sale on that front as well.

But there are many more economic factors that are a play here then we could touch on in a gaming forum.

And basically they are going to have to make some changes if they want to stay competitive in the video game market.

[soxfan2005]

@no-spin

How is it "unorthodox" for a company to offset losses on some products by profiting on others? Sony loses money on PS3, and they make it up (although not completely, obviously) on other products, same as MS.

[RememberThe357]

Offsetting losses isn't unorthodox at all but what he is talking about is the way they achieve that offset.

[no-spin]

Because they simply dont care to see red ink

The live membership is abusive, and PC gamers know that charging for online play is outrageous.

Unorthodox to rush a 33% failure rate console and then spending $ 1 billion in warranty. Price cut after price cut even if that means bigger losses for each unit sold. If MS did not have its huge monopoly (like making deals with intel so that the processor does not run linux; pathetic) and had to compete fair and square, they would go bankrupt in less than a year. MS business approach is like watching a donkey on skates.

[dcbronco]

The difference is that MS makes 14-17 billion in profits every year. They also have 0 debt. And over 30 billion sitting around in a drawer. The two companies are on the opposite end of the financing stick. Sony has far more debt than cash on hand so they couldn't afford this. They thought it would be worst so Stringer is doing something right though.
But the headline is dead on. They can't afford a price cut unless they have a major cost reduction coming to the PS3. At least $150 worth of savings and it would take a die shrink on the CPU and GPU and reductions in parts cost to come close to that.

[Mu5afir]

They lost total of 1 billion of potential profit, that they thought they would make. Sony didn't lose money, they didn't make the money they promised their shareholders. People who don't know how stock works, shouldn't be making up news.

[ravinash]

Most of the losses were probably from the strong Yen and the drop in electronics sales. In the current climate I'd say that's to be expected.

[Stryfeno2]

Wow...What a loss.

[ravinash]

Yeah, right up there with RROD.

[ravinshield]

finally some good news

[ravinash]

Hay hay!!! I wondered where you got to?

[TheBand1t]

Kinda like the 4 billion on the first Xbox and the 1 billion for RRoD warranties.

Try again, nubbar.

[TheColbertinator]

Looks like the giants of the past(Sony,EA,Square Enix) are burning cash amazingly fast.Serves them right for their arrogance and laziness

[swiftshot93]

No way in hell EA and Sony are lazy. They've pumped out amazing games this generation. Sony's arrogance is a thing of the past, and I don't see how EA is ever arrogant. They definitely don't deserve to be loosing money.

Are you still look forward to Mass Effect 2 and Uncharted 2?

[madkrazygames]

yea this was a very misleading article, I think people forget that Sony has more products, than the PS3. Come on N4G, I thought your source filter was suppose to block crap like this?

[-x.Red.x-]

wasn't they expecting like 1.5-2.0 billion?

well.. ps3 is doing alright under no ads, high price point

[deshon09]

think we will see one by x mas